Crosby, Duchesne and Zagrapan are the players of the month in the QMJHL
BOUCHERVILLE, Tuesday, March 22, 2005 (QMJHL) Today, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League made its last selection of the 2004-2005 season and named the offensive, defensive and rookie players of the month for March. The honours respectively go to Sidney Crosby, from the Océanic de Rimouski, who is selected for a third month in a row and for a fourth time in the season (on a possibility of six), to Jérémy Duchesne, from the Halifax Mooseheads, and to Marek Zagrapan, from the Saguenéens de Chicoutimi, for a second time this season.
Sidney Crosby totalled 10 goals and 21 assists for a total of 31 points in 8 games. He had one winning goal and a differential of + 16. His best game of the month as well as his best game in career took place on March 11th against the Huskies de Rouyn Noranda as he scored 3 goals and had 4 assists for a total of 7 points in a win 10 6 for the Océanic. Crosby was also one of the main performers in the new record sequence of his team that played 28 games without a loss. During the month of March, he participated in the scoring of each game, except for two, where he had no goal, but 2 assists. Sidney Crosby ends the regular season as leading scorer of the QMJHL for a second consecutive season. He totals 66 goals and 102 assists for a total of 168 points.
Sidney Crosby was preferred to Guillaume Latendresse, from the Voltigeurs de Drummondville (10-7-9-16), to Guillaume Labrecque, from the Olympiques de Gatineau (6-6-6-12) and to Marek Zagrapan, from the Saguenéens de Chicoutimi (8-8-5-13), who is selected as rookie of the month.
The best defensive player of the month is Jérémy Duchesne, goaltender for the Halifax Mooseheads. The doorkeeper did not lose any of the 6 games he played in March, with goals against average of 1.46 and efficiency percentage of .949. Duchesne allowed himself a shutout 4 0 at the expense of the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles on March 15th, where he made 42 stops. Jérémy Duchesne was obtained from the Tigres de Victoriaville in January, and since he has started playing for the Mooseheads, his score sheet is almost perfect with 12 wins and 2 ties.
Duchesne and his defensive squad had quite an exceptional month in March with regard to man-disadvantage situations. During their 9 games, they allowed only one goal in 37 man-disadvantage situations (97.3% success).
The goaltender’s goals against average is excellent, with a score of 2.35 during the 2004-2005 season, but he has not reached the required amount of minutes (1,680) to be eligible to the Jacques-Plante trophy as he only played 1,631 minutes.
Jérémy Duchesne came ahead of Patrick Coulombe, from the Océanic de Rimouski (8-3-4-7), Marc-Edouard Vlasic, from the Remparts de Québec (7-2-5-7) and David Tremblay, from the Olympiques de Gatineau (6 games, 5 wins and 1 loss, 364.38 minutes played, goals against average of 2.14, efficiency percentage of .929.).
As rookie of the month par excellence, Marek Zagrapan, from the Saguenéens de Chicoutimi, has been chosen. In 8 games, he scored 8 goals and had 5 assists for a total of 13 points. Three of his goals were scored in man-advantage situations. His offensive efficiency percentage is 28.6%, meaning that, out of 28 shots, the puck went 8 times into the net. His best performance of the month took place on March 3rd, as he added 3 goals to his score sheet when Chicoutimi lost the game in overtime 6 5 against Rimouski.
The Saguenéens will meet the Drakkar de Baie-Comeau in the first round of playoffs, and the first game will be played in Chicoutimi at the Centre Georges-Vézina on Friday, March 25th.
In the running for the title of rookie of the month, Marek Zagrapan came ahead of Guillaume Doucet, from the Huskies de Rouyn-Noranda (8-6-6-12), Benjamin Breault, from the Drakkar de Baie-Comeau (8-3-7-10), and Kristopher Letang, from the Foreurs de Val d’Or (8-2-4-6).
